Metformin may not increase survival of patients with pancreatic cancer

the ONA take:

According to a retrospective cohort study presented this week at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, researchers from Mayo Clinic Cancer Center in Rochester, Minnesota, have found that metformin use did not improve survival of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

For the study, researchers analyzed data from 1,360 patients with PDAC. Patients were classified into various groups, such as those who never used metformin and those who started taking metformin more than 30 days after cancer diagnosis.

Results showed that the median survival for those who did not take metformin was 308 days versus 292 days for those with different exposures to metformin with no statistical difference between the groups. Metformin users with resectable disease were observed to have a trend toward improved survival.

The findings are important because cancer treatment trials in progress are including metformin, a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes, based on epidemiologic studies that have shown that metformin reduces the risk of cancer-related death.

Metformin may not increase survival of patients with pancreatic cancer

Metformin use did not improve survival of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) in a retrospective cohort study, according to data presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2015, April 18-22.